- Another Man's World available as a Kindle ebook
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Release date: October 2011
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Ex-boxer Garron is back, now working full time as a bodyguard and rent collector and struggling with both his wrecked past and his bleak future. Working for shady businessmen and criminals, he's trying to stay one step out of their life and make sense of his own. But at a time when Garron sees a possible way out of his troubles, one small job starts to escalate out of control and betrayal by friends and manipulation by enemies sees him dragged into a world of unlicensed fights and shotgun robberies, a world where he is pulled into confrontation with career criminal Adam Hillier, a world in which Hillier walks unchallenged. It is another man's world.
Reviews
'Enter the dark underbelly of London for a story of one man's fight against steep odds
Garron is about as unorthodox a
hero as you can get. An ex-boxer who could have gone pro, he was unfortunate
enough to suffer a career-limiting injury to his wrist. A glittering
career in the boxing ring over, Garron has resorted to the rent collecting
business and part-time bodyguard for some of London’s more dubious tourists. He’s
not exactly a good guy and you get the feeling that he’s on the
edge waiting to fall into the murky underworld that seems to be his only
future.
Mick is his handler and sets up all the deals on Garron’s behalf.
Mick is one of Garron’s few long-term friends who still play a
part in his life, such as it is anymore. That is until an old friend
turns up and things start to get a little out of hand... First there’s
a raid by a couple of Donald Duck’s plus shotguns; then a run in
with local gangster, Hillier, who isn’t overly thrilled with Garron’s
style... and then, then there is Jenny.
It was refreshing to read as Garron unfolded before my very eyes and
he does unfold. We are privy to his thoughts, his nightmares, his fears
and self-doubt – Garron is very much human, just as fallible, just
as afraid, just as broken inside. There is a bittersweet aftertaste to
this book that transcends most ‘action hero’ type novels – in
fact, I wouldn’t really class this as ‘action hero’...
it’s more like watching a small child who is lost and wandering
around aimlessly, fighting just to survive and get through another day,
slowly metamorphosis into a man willing to forge his own future instead
of just accepting his current lot.
Don’t be deceived though – Garron is a killer and hard as
nails. In fact, the juxtapose of him as a fighter and him being fragile
at the start of his new relationship with Jenny is quite something.
Stein writes with real class and has created a devastatingly credible
and hugely desirable character in Garron. Women will swoon and men will
feel inadequate.'
truth about books
Reviews for previous books by Joe Stein
‘A book that will stay with you long after you finish reading’
Crimespree Magazine
‘Stein writes with real class and has created a devastatingly credible and hugely desirable character in Garron’
The Truth About Books
About the Author
Joe Stein was born in London in the 1960s and educated (just about) in North London. His first job was in a scrap-yard, stripping copper out of electrical cables. He left there before it was raided by Customs and Excise and has been trying to stay out of trouble ever since.
He admits to being an ex-musician and sometime amateur boxer and won't say much else. He has worked in factories, warehouses, markets, spent two days on a building site before he realised it wasn’t the place for anyone with even mild vertigo and worked for over ten years in security and as a bodyguard, luckily getting married and being told to get a ‘proper’ job before the government decided to license the security industry. His training manual for bodyguards is now therefore out of date and a collectors’ item.
He always wanted to try to write and although his first book took many years to complete, he now has four novels and a dozen short stories to his name.
He still lives in North London and has a full time day job to fit around the rest of his life.